A Quest for Intimacy - 3

 A Quest for Intimacy - 3

Subject – Having a Determined Purpose is not Easy

By Rick Welborne

Philippians 3:10 (NKJV)
¹⁰  that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 

Philippians 3:10 AMP                                                                                                                                         [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him—that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding [the wonders of His person] more strongly and more clearly. And that I may in the same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [the power it exerts over believers]; and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death.   

--I believe we all can agree that having a “determined purpose” is so important to our intimacy with Christ, but hear your pastor, it is neither easy nor automatic. 

--If you are looking for encouragement from this world or this world’s system or even from friends who are not born again, forget it. I am shocked how many people look for counsel outside the family of faith. Non-biblical.

--Listen to Isaac Watts’ questions. They are extremely old but overwhelmingly relevant:

Watts – Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend to grace, to help me on to God?

--Today let’s look at two essential decisions, each related to a discipline (we are disciples), that will help us develop an in-depth intimacy with Christ and Holy Spirit. 

--If you are serious about becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with God, you will find these two decisions will help you in that process. This is not all we can learn but a good beginning. Swindoll:

1. Reordering One’s Private World: The Discipline of Simplicity

--Everything we encounter in this world works against reordering and simplifying our lives. Yes, everything. Our world is cluttered with junk and is extremely complicated. 

--Please know God did not create our world that way. Our depraved, restless world wanting more and wanting it faster has made it that way. Think about all the devices made to save us time. A joke. Complicated everything. 

Ecclesiastes 7:29 (NCV)
²⁹  One thing I have learned: God made people good, but they have found all kinds of ways to be bad.

Ecclesiastes 7:29 (TEV)                                                                                                                                        29 God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.

--I hope you know this, advertisements have one major goal: to make us discontented. They want us miserably dissatisfied with who we are and what we have. Why? So we will buy what they are selling. And we do.

--The watchword for the consumer society is very loud and clear and assertive…more! Enough is never enough. Even in the church we get caught up with competition which pushes us to the brink of questionable motives.

Proverbs 30:11-15 (NIV)
¹¹  "There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers;
¹²  those who are pure in their own eyes and yet are not cleansed of their filth;
¹³  those whose eyes are ever so haughty, whose glances are so disdainful;
¹⁴  those whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are set with knives to devour the poor from the earth, the needy from among mankind.
¹⁵  "The leech has two daughters. 'Give! Give!' they cry. 

--Solomon was definitely right…We have made ourselves very complicated. Not only do we acquire more stuff, we accumulate more and more and run out of room to keep it. I have nothing to wear.

--We are driven, not led, to win at any cost no matter who we have to run over to get there. Not only do we want more, we have to spend so much time trying to maintain those things.

--Trying to stay ahead at this maddening pace leaves us strained and struggling to deal with all this stuff. We find ourselves fearful and even struggling to breathe because of the anxiety. 

--Surely it is not God Who is the author of such confusion and chaos. Thomas Kelly - God never guides us to an intolerable scramble of panting feverishness. 

--To be able to re-order one’s own world happens when we find it imperative to simplify our lives. If we don’t we will not be able to find inner peace, nor be able to access the deep parts of our hearts where God speaks to us

--If we stay in that condition too long we will find our hearts growing cold toward Christ. We become like Eve.

2 Corinthians 11:3 (NKJV)
³  But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

--Please do not think you are not vulnerable to this. It can happen in a family where everyone is a Christian, even in a church where truth is taught, and even in seminary where exhausted students let down their guard.

--Another enemy to this simplicity is when we compare ourselves with ourselves. We judge, compare, and even get prideful how we are better than the other person or discover we never measure up to the super saints.

--To those who determine to simplify their lives quickly discover it is a rigorous solo voyage against the wind. We must slow our pace and stop envying others. Two tough assignments. Make your life simple.

2. Being Still: The Discipline of Silence

--The disciplines get tougher not easier. Imagine how tough it is to simplify our lives, just imagine the challenge you face in a world filled with noise, restlessness, and nonstop activity, to have the discipline of silence.

--I have almost found in my own personal life that this challenge is insurmountable. Another family crisis, another funeral, Covid, and just life keeps us from the times of silence. But listen to the Psalmist:

Psalm 46:10 (NKJV) 

¹⁰  Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! 

Psalm 46:10 (TLB)
¹⁰  "Stand silent! Know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation in the world!" 

--It really does not matter what translation you choose, God is addressing His own people of every race, color, culture, and era, people mature, employed, unemployed, single or married…be still and be silent in my presence

--We are commanded to rest, relax, let go, and make time for God. The scene is one of stillness and quietness, listening and waiting before Him and Him only.

--Sounds almost impossible in these busy times but if we will know God deeply and intimately we must have this discipline of silence. We can’t do without silence if we hope to go deeper with God. 

Swindoll – Noise and words and frenzied, hectic schedules dull our senses, closing our ears to His still small voice and making us numb to His touch.

--Think about how we have to contend with words (messages) on our phones and on billboards. Sometimes we fill like we are driving thru a dictionary. Use me, drink me, buy me, come to my place. Nonstop words.

--Think about it when you get a chance to go to a place, a beach, the mountains, or wherever there is silence or solitude, and how we are refreshed by that. It is the therapy of stillness connecting with God.

--Do you ever find yourself victimized by the noisy, busy, overcrowded world in which we spend many hours a day in the middle of. We become insensitive to Holy Spirit and the things of God.

--There are times we find ourselves feeling down and depressed without even knowing why. We find it hard to pray and we find ourselves truly distracted from what is important.

--Straight talk…no one can do anything about this but you. 

Swindoll – Allow it to continue, and you will gravitate into one of two directions. Either you will run through the motions and cultivate a hypocritical spirituality hidden behind the mask of phony enthusiasm, or you will simply fade from involvement and distance yourself from meaningful relationships with other Christians. In both cases, you will set yourself up for a fall. I have seen it happen more often than I want to recall. 

--Let’s face it, we all can be sucked into a sort of black hole of activities in this hurried world. When that happens, we find ourselves running from others in our own family and church rather than toward them. 

 --Intimacy with Jesus calls for disciplines that are no longer valued or emulated by our society. We must begin with simplicity which allows us to re-order our private world. 

--After this, there must be silence…Be still and know that I am God. This silence and stillness allows us to be able to hear from God and allow for the closeness we so desperately need. 

--All of us can testify, God does not speak to a hurried, worried mind. It takes time alone with Him and His word before we can expect our spiritual strength to recover. In Paul’s struggle, he could hear God:

 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 (NKJV)
⁸  Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
⁹  And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
¹⁰  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.